Rooftops: Case Files
by Daniel K Morgan
Summary: The past hides us. Its shelters us from questions, but it also holds the answers; in a word, and in an act, and in a look. James Gordon has worked with many men, his past holds the key to understanding which of those many men now bathes in the blood of his city. A companion Fic to Batman: Rooftops on CasualrobotDOTcom.
1. Case Files 001

**First Time**

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"Down!"

James Gordon and Ralph Adams hurl themselves at the ground, the blue saloon takes bullets like raindrops so that the two young detectives can catch their breaths. They each reload, and imagine the sound that the clip makes as it snaps in place. They hear that Gotham is screaming, they see its people falling like flies around them, and they eye one another, and they nod their heads. One of them pulls a pin.

The gunfire breaks momentarily, enough for the two colleagues to emerge from their shelter as friends and fire out into smoke and sound. It is a game of silhouettes, if you see one, you shoot it. Jim Gordon is not as good a shot as his partner, he finds his marks well enough, but through the corner of his eye he cannot help but to notice that the man to his right is better. He feels a breath rush past his ear, and then puts a bullet in its origin. He sees a flash and jumps, his knees find the concrete, all he can think to do is fire. Adams as well, still on his feet, fires at the sounds and at the flashes of light. The smoke begins to thin, and his partner finds the floor as well, and they fire fire fire fire, their arms out-stretched and the hard floor beneath their chests, they fire until there is silence. And when there is, when they can hear the sound of their sharp tugs of air, they laugh a nervous laughter, Ralph Adams puts his face in to the ground; Jim Gordon roles over onto his back, still laughing, clutching the stitch in his gut.

When they fill out the reports afterwards, when they tell their stories, they are as heroes. The pen tells of their courage, the mouths of those who saw tell of their skill, yet none but the two themselves ever know of the thick catch in the throat, of the vomit later that night, of the terror, of the anxiety that will stick like a stain. Only when they look into one another's eyes can they see written such things. They take solace in that, and a wall is built for them alone.

In the future, each will have many walls with many men and woman, and inside them the truth of shared memories; but that day, that they hid from death and caught their breath amidst the gunfire, they mark as a first.

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This Fic is an optional companion to a much larger story called Rooftops. The main story can be found by going to: **casualrobotDOTcom** and clicking on Batman: Rooftops.


	2. Case Files 002

**The Details**

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Child's play, she thinks, as she slips the shimmering ringlets of white on to her wrist. She fills the safe with copies, locks it, smiles, laughs, she is high on the job and the thrill, and the thought of not having to struggle for rent. As she stands her leather creaks and slides on her.

"You're good," a voice says. "I'll give you that."

Her heartbeat raises to the flap of a hummingbirds wing, panicked, her eyes try to follow the sounds, but her vision blurs in a mask of fear and guilt, crippled by not being able to see the words that she can hear. She thinks about running, but she lacks confidence in a way that she never has before. Instead, she asks, who's there? She asks feebly and without conviction, and a figure emerges from the darkness, looming and sinister, she recognises his image from the paper, she had laughed at the thought, she wasn't laughing now.

"My my, the big bad Bat, coming after little old me," she says, trying to get back into character, she feels a fraud.

"A warning is all, provided those jewels are returned to that safe." She steps hard in defiant strides, making sure that her heels knock like gunshots on the polished wooden floor. She's scared and trying not to show it, but ashamedly, she is also a little turned on - The mask, the strength, the arrogance.

"And are you sure that you have what it takes to stop me should I refuse? you said it yourself, I'm good."

"And you are, but you're not as good as me." She swears she sees a smile.

"A word of advice. Mister...?" He just stares at her. "Don't underestimate me. To underestimate me would be a mistake." She un-slips the jewels from her forearm, better to live to fight another day, she thinks. She tosses them toward him, he lets them fall to the floor, eye contact is maintained. She steps towards the window, making sure to show it all off. She has one foot out of the window when he speaks again.

"Miss Kyle," he says, and her breath catches, her insides sink, and she can't turn back around. "The mistake would be to think that I didn't see the pearls you slipped into your boots and down your top. Underestimate me, and you lose." She is embarrassed, she blushes beneath her mask.

"How?" she asks, "how do you know my name?"

"Details, Miss Kyle, it is always in the details." She turns quickly but he is gone, and it is like he was never there.

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This Fic is an optional companion to a much larger story called **Rooftops**. The main story can be found by going to: **casualrobotDOTcom** and clicking on **Batman: Rooftops.**


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